Miriam, Mostafa apparently is not interested in a friendly discussion.
Once I trounced him in a battle of logic he has done nothing but flame.
And I really do not expect to convince him of anything. He has faith on
his side. But what I can do and continue to do is facilitate his never
ending quest to discredit himself.
---
Voltaire
“ Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities. ”
― Voltaire,
On 7/21/2019 10:14 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Roger,
When I began participating on email lists back in the 90's, there used to be a
convention on the lists that people conformed to. It was a matter of good
manners not to flame people. What that meant was not to insult them or say very
negative things about them when a discussion became heated. It would be nice if
people adhered to that rule today.
I would also suggest that it isn't your responsibility or your place to educate
the people whom you encounter on these lists or to change them. In the same way
that what I'm saying to you now, will probably not change what you do or think,
it is unlikely that you'll change Mustafa's mind, or anyone else's for that
matter, at least not by argument and name calling. People do change their minds
sometimes, as a result of friendly discussion.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2019 9:39 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] Re: This sounds like Mostafa.
I was attempting to express an incredulity at how uneducated some people can
actually be and to relate it to my discussions with Mostafa. He really is that
exasperating in the same kind of way and since there have been so many
discussions with him on this list I was using him as another example. Okay, he
has not asked if the Earth really rotates then why is he still in Egypt, but
asking if we are descended from monkeys then why are there still monkeys is the
same kind of exasperating question. It blows my mind that anyone can be so
incredibly ignorant and yet hold themselves up as being better educated than I
am. Actually, though, I read that on Facebook and even though I found myself
groaning inwardly with exasperation I probably would not have mentioned it here
if it was not for Mostafa's comments on this list. The one about why am I still
in Nigeria, for example, was posted a good long time ago and I never mentioned
it here. I don't think it was before Mostafa showed up here, but it was before
certain discussions had transpired that showed him to have the same mentality.
This time, when I first saw the question about combustion in the sun the very
first thing I thought of was Mostafa. There was no point in remarking on that
fact in that Facebook group because the people there would have been unaware of
Mostafa and would have had no experience with him. I expected, though, that
everyone on this list could relate to the comparison, so I was overcome with
the urge to make the point. I will admit that there is a difference, though.
The guy on Facebook was not trying to argue a point. He was just showing his
incredible ignorance by asking a question that made completely false
assumptions that anyone who has taken a science class in elementary school
should not have made. Mostafa, on the other hand, makes these same kind of
false assumptions and uses them to bolster his arguments.
That is even more exasperating. I can refute pretty much every argument he
makes, but I cannot take him back to elementary school and give him a science
education even to mere high school level on an email list.
---
Voltaire
“ Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities. ”
― Voltaire,
On 7/20/2019 9:13 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I understand your post, but I wonder why you felt it necessary to implicate
Mustafa. He isn't involved in the science discussion to which you refer so
mentioning him is just a gratuitous public insult. You already have many
differences of opinion with Mustafa. Why look for additional ones?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2019 8:30 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] This sounds like Mostafa.
I just had to tell you guys about this. This sounds exactly like something
Mostafa would say. There is a Facebook discussion group on the subject of
science that I subscribe to. It is open to all, but I would expect that people
who would subscribe would have some interest in science and so would have some
kind of knowledge of science even if only rudimentary. Apparently that is not
the case. Someone just showed up and said that we all know that combustion
requires the presence of oxygen, so is there oxygen in the sun to make
combustion take place there? Some others started to give answers explaining
that chemical combustion takes place in the presence of oxygen, but that what
is happening in the sun is nuclear fusion. Personally, it seems to me that if a
person could seriously ask that question then it is unlikely that he would
understand such answers. I would not be surprised if he did not even know what
nuclear fusion is. I did not even bother to try to answer him. With someone
like that the only way to give a good answer would be to go back to elementary
science class and teach him that and to continue to teach him until he finally
reached a point that he could understand. This is exactly how I feel when
Mostafa asks questions like, if we descended from monkeys then why are there
still monkeys? How can you give a meaningful answer to someone that ignorant?
It is exasperating. It is also similar to another one I saw once. I don't know
if this was supposed to be a joke, but if it wasn't it is about just as
exasperating. Someone from Nigeria once asked, if the Earth really rotates then
why am I still in Nigeria?
